Officials: Travel predicted unsafe until Monday morning

Saturday

Overnight temperatures have made removing the snow and ice from Wednesday's storm difficult for state and city crews, as natural thawing is sabotaged by below-freezing temperatures.

Five days after a winter storm delivered inches of snow to the region, Monday will mark the last day of icy roads.

Temperatures in Eastern North Carolina are expected to break freezing as early as 10 a.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

Overnight, temperatures were expected to reach record-lows Saturday with lows of 8 degrees in Jacksonville, 3 degrees in Kinston and 6 degrees in New Bern, according to the National Weather Service.

According to the Jacksonville City Government Facebook page, Saturday morning temperatures broke a 1959 record of 15 degrees at 11 degrees.

Sunday night, temperatures are expected to reach double digits, but will still be well below normal in the teens.

John Elardo, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Morehead City, said it was very cold Friday night, especially where Wednesday night’s storm brought a snow pack further inland to ENC in the New Bern and Greenville area.

“When it’s clear and quiet the temperatures cool off very rapidly,” Elardo said.

It’s these conditions over the weekend that have made removing residual snow and ice difficult for road crews. Any thawing happening during the day is reversed once the sun goes down and takes the temperatures with it, freezing over and creating new layers of ice.

In a press release Friday, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) said Wednesday’s event was “mostly ice,” which is even more challenging to clear from the roads than straight snow, especially with the sustained low temperatures.

Crews began clearing snow and ice as soon as the storm was over Thursday morning, and the DOT brought additional equipment on board to service roads covering almost 12,000 miles, said the press release.

Crews have been operating over 40 plows and other equipment to clear the ice plaguing region and making travel extremely dangerous for the past four days. City crews, like those in Jacksonville, were using sand to add traction to icy roads Saturday, with morning temperatures too low to use salt, according to Jacksonville officials.

But the biggest challenge NCDOT seems to be facing is the temperature.

“Salt is only effective in helping melt the ice when the temperature is above 18 degrees, which makes clearing the roads more challenging,” said Division Engineer Karen Collette in the press release.

When overnight lows are barely making it to 10 degrees, with Sunday’s highs not expected above 20, it will be hard to completely remove the ice until Monday’s “heat wave” hits.

In addition, the NCDOT recommends avoiding any travel after sundown until temperatures reach “safe levels.”

“I would best define ‘safe temperatures’ as being sustained above-freezing or 32 degrees,” Rick wrote in an email to The Daily News. “Once we reach this level, you will see ice melt and not-refreeze so long as the temperatures remain above the 32 degree threshold.”

NCDOT crews have been working 24-hour shifts since the advent of ice accumulation, but Rick did not have specific information on Sunday’s plan.

By Rick’s standards, travel will still be unsafe Sunday night, as temperatures Sunday night will reach as low as 4 degrees in ENC.